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Lincoln Restler on Making Government Work, the Streets Plan, & the Department of Community Safety
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New York City Council Member Lincoln Restler, a B…
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Foreign.
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Hello and welcome to Max Politics. This is Ben Max coming to you from New York Law School and its center for New York City and State Law. Thanks for tuning in. Speaking here on Thursday, March 5, 2026. And my guest today is New York City Council member Lincoln Ressler, a Brooklyn Democrat who represents the 33rd Council District, which includes parts or all of the Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, Dumbo, Boreham Hill, Vinegar Hill, a little bit of Bedford Stuyvesant and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. A lot to discuss with him as he has legislation to enhance the city's streets plan law which requires a large build out of bus lanes, bike lanes and pedestrian space. And his bill is focused on pedestrianization of public space. He's also lead sponsor of a bill to re legalize outdoor dining in roadway space year round, an issue that's picking up steam in the council and with support from the Mamdani administration. And there was a hearing just two days ago on March 3rd at the City Council to discuss those bills and others, as well as hold an oversight hearing on the streets plan implementation with testimony from the new Department of Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn, one of Mayor Mamdani's early appointees. So we'll discuss those bills. That oversight hearing, which was chaired by Council Transportation Chair Sean Abreu, who I'll have on the show sometime in the coming weeks and also get into the broader issues around Street's plan implementation, the politics around bus and bike lanes and much more. Also going to discuss with council member Ressler his bill that would create a Department of Community Safety, one of the planks of Mayor Mamdani's campaign, but an issue Ressler has been working on for years. And we'll get into a good bit on that legislation, the creation of a new department that would take a holistic approach to public safety and violence prevention and much more. And we'll also talk more broadly about the dawn, dawn of the Mamdani era and how city government can get working again, the budget challenges the city faces and much more. Ressler has a lot of experience in city government and politics. He's been in the council now since 2022 and is a member of the Progressive Caucus. He co chaired it for a couple of years upon his initial election to the Council. He was reelected in 2023 and again in 2025 and is now in his final four year term due to term limits. He now chairs the City Council's Contracts Committee. And there's a on city contracting and oversight. We won't get to that in this conversation, but we're going to have a future conversation to follow up on that topic. Last term in the council, Ressler chaired the Government Operations Committee. So he is again into the nitty gritty of how government works and doesn't work in New York City and getting into a lot of that on the show today. Before being elected to the City Council, Lincoln Ressler worked in city government in a number of positions during the Bloomberg and de Blasio administrations, including as deputy chief of staff and in the mayor's office. During de Blasio's tenure, he's also been involved in reform politics in Brooklyn with the New King's Democrats, in part looking to reform the Brooklyn Democratic Party. We'll have to have yet another episode of the show to get into that, but we won't talk about it here in this one. His district in Brooklyn, by the way, has some of the highest voter turnout rates in the entire city. And on the politics side, he's very invested right now in trying to help his ally and friend Antonio Reynoso, the Brooklyn Borough president, get elected to Congress in New York 7th congressional district. Ressler and Reynoso have been longtime political allies and we'll talk a little bit in this conversation about that very competitive primary to succeed retiring Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez. That'll be towards the end of this conversation. I've recently spoken, by the way, as those who listen regularly the podcast know, with all three of the leading Democratic candidates in that 7th Congressional District primary. So that's Reynoso as well as Assemblymember Claire Valdez of Queens, who has support from Mayor Mamdani and the DSA in her her congressional run, and City Council Member Julie Juan of Queens as well. So City Council member Lincoln Ressler with me in just a moment to get into a whole lot of interesting discussion. Very briefly, briefly, if you've missed any recent episodes of the show, I mentioned these three conversations with the leading New York seven Democratic primary candidates. I've also spoken in recent weeks and months with the two leading Democrats in the very competitive 10th congressional district primary. That's current Congressman Dan Goldman and his challenger, former City Comptroller Brad Lander. I also had a very interesting recent conversation with the new City Comptroller Mark Levine, talking about city finances, Mayor Mamdani's first budget that he presented February 17, and much more about the city's budget picture, economy and additional items with Comptroller Mark Levine. Those and a whole bunch of other good ones in your Max Politics podcast feed in Case you missed any for after you listen to this one. All right. I'm very pleased to welcome back to Max Politics. New York City Council member Lincoln Ressler, a Brooklyn Democrat representing the 33rd district, including Greenpoint, Williamsburg, downtown Brooklyn, Dumbo, parts of a few other neighborhoods, Boreham Hill, elsewhere. He's a member of the Progressive Caucus and chair of the council's Contracts Committee. He was recently re elected to a final four year term in the council. Council member Ressler, thanks for joining me. How are you?
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I'm doing great, Ben. Thanks for having me back. I really appreciate it.
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Thanks for taking the time. So a lot to get to here in specifics, but give us the broad strokes of how you're thinking about where we are right now in city government and what's going on. And the big picture here. We have a new mayor just over two months into the job, a new council speaker just over two months into that job. Still, of course, feeling the impacts in city government and policymaking of the good, bad and mixed of the Eric Adams years. We have this challenging city budget picture, federal uncertainty. I'll stop there. What do you, how are you thinking about sort of where we are in this moment for New York City and city government and what city government needs to be doing and tackling and the challenges in front of all of you who are in the City Council and city government more broadly.
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This is a really hopeful moment in city government. I'm 40, almost 42, and I don't remember a time when there was this much excitement and hopefulness around the leadership at City Hall. Zoran's campaign brought significant swaths of new New Yorkers into the political process. More and more of our neighbors are paying attention to what we're doing, are invested in, in our work, believe that we have a responsibility to tackle the affordability crisis, make our neighborhood safer and more resilient. And I love that. I love being a part of it. And I'm really feeling good about, you know, the, the beginning of the Madani administration. You know, we're just two months in, but you know, they did a great job in their handling of the storms. I think service delivery has been smooth. There have been lot very talented people appointed to senior roles. And, you know, I'm optimistic about what we're going to be able to accomplish together. This council, this mayor in this moment. You know, as you said the last four years, were you mentioned the mixed and ugly. Those are the parts I thought I heard when you referenced Eric Adams. It was a bumpy four years where we Had a mayor who had no interest in working with the City Council, where there was cronyism all throughout the administration. More people were indicted than I can remember or count. And there's a lot of work to do to bring back ethics to city government, to bring back competence to city government and partnership to city government between the council and the mayor. And I think we're, you know, we're moving in the right direction. But it does take some time to, you know, address the 12 fold increase in vacancies and NYCHA apartments or the thousands of vacant supportive housing units and so many other areas where just the lack of rigor at City hall, lack of focus at City hall led to significant deterioration in city services.
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So just to pick up on that, I mean, one of the sort of promises that the Mamdani campaign made and the Mamdani administration is making is something that you, and in your leadership of the Progressive Caucus and the City Council and many other city Council members, including non progressive caucus members, including the current speaker Julie Menon, have talked about sort of trying to restore faith in how government operates. Some of that having to do with actually, you know, more fully staffing up city agencies, which is a whole bunch of challenges. We don't need to get into all the details of now, but real challenges in terms of recruitment, retention, hiring, civil service reform perhaps, but there's a lot there. But that sort of part of the bet here of this new era of city government, whether it's Mayor Mamdani, Speaker Menon, the council is that government and big government that New York City has and maybe even getting bigger can actually produce results for people. Other than this general sense of sort of rigor, good appointments, what do you see as the keys to that? Like, you know, you chaired the government Operations committee last term, you've worked in City hall on the mayoral side, been in the council. What are a couple of the other really nuts and bolts keys to making city government work better and actually show people deliverables. Because there are a lot of people concerned that the Mamdani administration and the council just want to keep, you know, spending more and more money, expanding the size of government. But it's going to continue to be really inefficient and ineffective. What are your keys to success there?
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It starts with the mayor, the mayor laying out what the north stars of the administration are, what the values of his administration are. And I think he did that spectacularly on the campaign. People who are joining the Mamdani administration, people who are remaining in civil service, they know what this man believes in. They know that he has invested in addressing the affordability crisis. They never will doubt his ethics and integrity. That is critical. It then goes to appointments having the right deputy mayors in place and the right agency heads in place so that you have folks at City hall who are holding their agencies accountable to actually implement the campaign platform and the priorities of the administration. And then it's data and metrics and making sure that you've got clear, measurable goals and you're holding yourselves accountable to achieve them. And that's what has to happen. Those are the three key pieces, in my opinion. It's values, it's talent and people and quality who can manage in a rigorous way and having the right, crisp, clear goals that you're working toward. And I think that this team is on pace to being a highly successful administration.
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Anything worry you in these first two months that you've seen out of the administration? I mean, this, this gamble on putting a big property tax increase in the budget has gotten a lot of blowback and virtually no people vouching for it as. As even a negotiating tactic. And of course, the mayor and first Deputy Mayor Dean Fulahan and others have said, we don't want to do this. We don't want to go through with this. But this is the placeholder in the budget because we want more money from tax increases passed at the state level on high earners and cor or other forms of revenue through the state. That seems to be maybe the biggest, you know, misstep or potential misstep so far, if you want to call it that. But anything you've seen that is most concerning so far about, you know, this sort of very green mayor with a pretty experienced team he's put together. Any concerns so far? Any. Any red flags for you?
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Yeah. Mayor Mamdani may not have worked in city government, but he's clearly an extensive, exceptionally capable guy. And the caliber of people he's brought in, folks like Dean Fulahan, Shreef Suleiman and others, are excellent, some of the best people I've ever worked with. So I have a lot of confidence in the team. Look, the property tax proposal was clearly a boogeyman. It is a challenging thing for a new administration to come in midway through the fiscal year and have to put a city budget together for the next year. You come in and 45 days later have to release a preliminary budget. And, and what is always a challenge of the city budgeting process is you're doing it at the same time while we work through the state budget. And we don't know what our city budget's going to look like until the state budget is adopted. So look, the property tax increase was, I think, essentially a placeholder. It was a way to say this is the worst case scenario. Our strong preference is a more fair and equitable tax policy where we ask the very, very, very wealthiest among us who have done so well in our city that has such extraordinary income inequality, we can ask those millionaires to pay a little bit more to stabilize our city finances and to ensure high quality delivery of services that New Yorkers depend on. I think that's the right approach to ask for that, you know, higher income tax on the very, very wealthiest among us. If that doesn't come to pass in the state budget, there are other ways that the state can help us and provide more resources to support city. As of today, we have a budget gap that's just over $5 billion and we have to sell for it. I hope that our friends in Albany will do more. And if we're unable to, you know, if we still have a gap after the state budget is enacted, then we're going to have to look at ways that we can achieve some additional efficiencies, that we can generate some additional revenue through other ways. But I don't think anyone seriously expects that's going to be a nine and a half percent property tax increase across the board. Yeah.
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I mean, it seems to me that the most, you know, likely scenario is some combination of other ways of increasing state aid. Maybe there's other revenue raisers at the state level that are not the governor, you know, giving in on income tax increases even at the highest levels or even corporate tax increases, although could potentially see her doing something small on a corporate tax increase. But, you know, more state aid in various ways and revenue raisers, a bit more savings found through the, you know, city budget process. I know Speaker Menon has talked about that. Right. And then you, you sort of get through this cycle and as you, as you pointed out, it is a very short time and it becomes even shorter when you have an administration coming in that has such a different point of view than what they're inheriting.
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Right.
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It's, you know, for a momdani administration to sort of have to inherit an Eric Adams administration budget is, is, you know, very different than if you had gone, I don't know, from a, you know, sort of Bill de Blasio budget to a Zoram Hamdani budget. But at the same time, what do you make of this, of this issue of the, of how the city council signed off on these budgets that universally everyone's saying there was a billions of dollars of under budgeting of known expenses and you know, sort of handing this very structurally imbalanced budget to the next administration and the next council.
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I think there's a fair critique there. The reality is that this is not a practice that started under Eric Adams and his omb. It has existed for a long time where there's under budgeting of certain areas for fuzzy math in certain areas that the administration doesn't fully show their cards and cover what we know the real expenses are, whether that be for shelter costs or for Carter cases, for covering special education issues for students with special Needs or for FEPs, the voucher program that we have to help support low income families accessing housing. These areas have always been under budgeted. What happened in the Adams administration was far worse. And especially at the very end of the administration when, you know, the mayor was thinking about trying to run for reelection, I think that his, his team was even more misleading around the, their expectations of what real cost would be in the budget. And I think the Mamdani team deserves a lot of credit for being honest and forthcoming and saying, we're not playing any more games. We're putting these real costs on the table for all New Yorkers to see so that we understand the actual expenses that we're facing as a city. We're not going to, you know, float. We're not going to create a savings policy of just telling every city agency that they can't hire anyone for the rest of time. Right. What we all know is during the Adams years, over the last few years, any city agency, the Parks Department, our social service agency, they send over for approval in the budget office at omb, approval for a new hire. And it just would sit there for months and months and months because the Adams team didn't want to spend the money. That's not the right way to manage the city. That is a horrible way to deliver the services that New Yorkers depend on. So the Mamdani team is trying to do things the right way. It's going to take. There's some bumps to get there. It's not an easy thing for them to pull off. But I credit them for being truthful and forthcoming.
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B
All right, let's get into some of the specifics of your work in the council here. Recently you were just one of the key voices in the council in an oversight hearing on the city streets plan. Questions around how the Department of Transportation under Especially the Adams administration, because that's where the first four years of the five year streets plan that was mandated by legislation that was passed back in 2019 were, were being implemented or supposed to be implemented. A major expansion of bus lanes, a major expansion of bike lanes, pedestrian space and more. You have a couple of bills related to public space that were also on the agenda here. So talk a little bit about that hearing, the big takeaways. Obviously, the Adams administration, it's well known now and anyone who follows any of this that, you know, they were significantly behind the mandates of the bus lane and the bike lane build outs. And now the Mamdani administration has promised to do much better. But it's going to be very difficult getting back to the staffing question that we were just talking about and running government well to sort of get up to speed and really start hitting those benchmarks quickly. But they indicated they're going to try. So what are your takeaways from this hearing? And if you want to talk a little bit, particularly about your pedestrianization bill,
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I was very clear with Commissioner Flynn and his team that, you know, the status quo with DOT is unacceptable. And over the last four years, I think they've achieved just over 55, 57% of their goals around protected bike lanes and protected bus lanes and new bus lanes. It's just totally inadequate. The City Council passed legislation that was signed into law to set ambitious new metrics for the new bike lanes and the new bus lanes that we need in New York City. And the Adams administration just utterly failed. And I commend the new chair of the Transportation Committee, Shawn Abreu, for holding this hearing and holding dot's feet to the fire. And I was really grateful that so many of my colleagues came to the hearing and really held DOT accountable and said and made clear to Commissioner Flynn that we are expecting him and his team to do dramatically better moving forward. And you know, the Adams administration would like to enjoy, tried to blame council members that it was our fault, that we, you know, that, that every council member wasn't enthusiastically endorsing every single project. And as a result, these projects weren't getting built. These projects don't require council approval. These projects need to move forward. And I'm hopeful that, that the Mamdani administration and Commissioner Flynn and his team are going to prioritize lots of new bike and bus projects across the city. I've got a dozen projects in Council District 33 that we are desperate for DOT to move forward on. And I'm hopeful that we're Going to see real progress this year, next year and every year of this administration.
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B
Now, is that a little bit of an argument against a different type of member deference here? A little bit of saying that the city's department of Transportation, the mayor administration, should not be listening to local council members when they oppose bus or bike lane projects.
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It's important to listen. It's important to engage. I know my district intimately. When DOT brings me a project, I bring them even more projects than they bring me. But when they bring me a project, not everyone does. Not everyone does, though. This is something I'm really passionate about and I care about making every block of District 33 safer in downtown Brooklyn and Greenpoint and Williamsburg, across our whole community. I want our council district to be a model for the city and beyond for what safe streets can look like. But when DOT brings a project to me for review and input, I give them feedback. I know what's going to happen at this corner. I know where industrial business X is located and child care Y is situated and what's going to be a challenge at this intersection. I know who you need to talk to to get input and insight to make this work for important cultural institution, stakeholder public school here. I give them that guidance to make the project better. Now that is the purpose of community engagement. It's not to kill projects, it's to inform projects and make them more effective and well designed. So I welcome the input that DOT seeks from my office and from, you know, my assembly members and senators, et cetera, locally as well. But it's in the purpose of getting more done. And I think that the administration didn't have the political will to push forward on projects when they encountered negative feedback or resistance. And I hope that this administration appreciates that we have to save lives, that too many people die on our streets, too many people suffer serious injuries on our streets. These are preventable deaths, preventable injuries, and we must do better.
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B
And as the mayor well knows, too many people stuck in very slow moving buses.
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A
That's absolutely right.
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That seemingly was perhaps the biggest failure of the Adams administration around the streets plan was the bus lanes. I mean, I think the bus lanes are even further behind the targets, much further behind the targets than the bike lanes, if I'm not mistaken. And you know, that's another one where, you know, there's a lot of local politics going into, going into some of those discussions about where bus lanes are going to go and how they're going to run and whether they're going to be, you know, Separated and protected and all that. And the mayor has come in with a different vision and his DOT commissioner, as you got it, Mike Flynn has talked about that too. But we'll see what the implementation actually looks like.
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You know, just in our district, we pushed with DOT to implement a protected busway on Livingston street in downtown Brooklyn. We're working with DOT to implement a protected bus lane on Flatbush Avenue. You know, these buses, each of those bus lanes have 50 to 75,000 riders a day. This can really help people get where they need to go far more efficiently. It makes an enormous difference in people's lives. And, you know, if you live in East Blackbush, your average commute to work is 50 something minutes, right? In my district, I'm one stop away from Manhattan. It's easy for people to get where they need to go, but many communities around the city rely entirely on buses, and they are so slow. You know, people ask me why I bike as much as I do, and, you know, I've taken 5,000 Citi bike rides. It's my primary way of getting around. But it's because it's so much faster than taking the bus. I'd love to be on the bus and take zoom calls and write emails. It would be ideal. I'd be more productive, but I can't afford to move that slowly. And so we're committed to helping this mayor and this DOT implement more protected busways across our district. And hopefully that's a, you know, we can inspire other council members to do the same.
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B
Staffing up. Obviously, the funding needs to be there. And as we're talking about here, some of the political will needs to be there. Any other keys that need to happen, or is it kind of that strong management?
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Strong management. You know, this is, you know, I get the answer. No. Far more than I should when I reach out to dot. And I'm hopeful that with new leadership and a new orientation, there's a desire to work with us collaboratively to solve the issues we identify. And, you know, I love many of the people who work there and they're good colleagues and partners, but we can do better. And I really hope that Commissioner Flynn is ready to, you know, make the bureaucracy far more effective than it has been.
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City of yes. For bike, bus and pedestrian opportunity. I mean, that's. But that, I mean, that's the street's plan. So, you know, that's the streets plan.
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A
We just have to actually do it. I mean, it's the law and it's time for DOT to follow it. Let's make it happen and one piece of it. And I just, if I have a one more second on this that, you know, is, you know, we focus a lot on bikes and buses. We don't focus nearly enough on the primary way that New Yorkers get around, which is walking. And there. We have just put forward legislation to be incorporated into the next iteration of the streets plan to set new, ambitious goals to expand pedestrian space. We all. There is nothing more frustrating as a New Yorker than being stuck behind a slow walker in a congested area. And we all know, whether it's J Street in Downtown Brooklyn or 125th street or areas in downtown Jamaica where there just isn't space for pedestrians to get where they need to go because it's far too congested and the sidewalks are too narrow. And so we've set out a goal for DOT to create a million square feet of new pedestrian space every year, to expand sidewalks around busy subway and bus stops, to add more open streets, add more public plazas, add more daylighting, add more space that is for pedestrians to be able to safely and swiftly get around our city. And I really think that needs to be the key third stool of the streets plan. It's bikes, you know, safe, protected network of bike lanes. It's making buses move faster, a network of strong, you know, protected busways. And it's more pedestrian space.
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B
And there is. There are pedestrianization mandates in the streets plan. You're talking about expand, expanding those.
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So there were pedestrian mandates for the first two years of the streets plan, for reasons I don't understand, they didn't continue beyond years one and two. And so, you know, the. We should ensure that those benchmarks are in place every year and that they should be far more ambitious than what we've done in the past.
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B
It was interesting. We had then presumptive next City Council Speaker Julie Menon in here at New York Law School for a conversation with myself and Andrew Ryan, president of Citizens Budget Commission, in December. It was supposed to be a speaker candidate debate, but then she locked up the race, so we had her in for a chat.
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Impressive.
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And, yeah, she ran quite a race. And it was interesting. In a lightning round, I asked her, you know, if the City Council was going to add one appointee, one commissioner appointee, that there was advice and consent on that. The council had to approve the mayoral nominee. Who would you want it to be? And I was surprised she said, DoT Commissioner, which I guess, you know, in part goes to the root of some of what you were just discussing about the Communication, the political will, how much, you know, obviously the streets touch everybody and everywhere. So that was very interesting to hear her say that. Not, not that I think that's particularly high in the agenda, but since I asked the question, it was interesting that that was her response.
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A
You know, people for council members, you know, we get incoming every single day about why isn't there a stop sign on this corner? Why is this streetlight not repaired? Why are these basic safety and quality of life issues not addressed in a timely fashion? And I think I talked to friends who are in senior roles@dot and they're frustrated too. Right? Like, we have to do better. And this bureaucracy is to achieve the goals of the streets plan, to frankly, achieve the even more ambitious vision that Mayor Mandani has set out will require Commissioner Flynn to, like, make this a far better functioning bureaucracy than what he's entering in with today.
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B
You. I mean, there's so many things on just these issues, but I do want to get to a couple other things, but you have a bill to reinstitute full year round outdoor dining in the. In street space for cafes. You have a bill, and you were tweeting about this the other day to totally sort of revamp the parking placard system for city employees. I mean, these, these are issues.
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A
Got a bill for citizen enforcement of illegal parking, so you could take a photo of an illegally parked car and send it into DOT for a ticket to be issued. Now we're. There's. There. We have a. This is something I'm, as you could probably hear, I'm profoundly passionate about. I really care about it. I know we can do so much better. This is squarely the purview of city government. How do we make our streets, you know, how do we divvy up our street space smartly and make it work better for all of us, improve the safety for everyone? You know, outdoor dining is something that has been, you know, was really decimated by the Adams administration. And, you know, we had eight.
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B
And the city Council, and the city council.
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A
It's true, it's true. I think that the, the rulemaking and bureaucracy that the, that DOT imposed on outdoor dining made it far worse. But I didn't vote for this bill, you know, when it came up three years ago, because I knew that it was going to undermine outdoor dining. And, and, and it has. You know, at the height of COVID there were 8,000 restaurants around New York City that had roadway dining permits. You know, right now, going into the spring, I think there's 400 or you know, that have full permits in place for outdoor dining structures. It's pathetic. It's abysmal. You know, outdoor dining has been great for restaurants. It's been great for restaurant workers. It's been great for neighborhoods. But most of all, it's great for all of us to be able to have a nice meal or a drink. Sit outside on your block, you know, on a. On a pretty street, do you know, people watch and enjoy yourself. Like, this is so. This is such a good thing. And I'm thrilled that Speaker Menon has made it a priority to get done. Mayor Mamdani's team, Commissioner Flynn, testified in support of the legislation. It looks like all signs are go. And I'm hopeful that my colleagues will support it in the council and that we can get this done swiftly.
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B
So that one. I was about to say, it looks like that one's likely to have the support and to move ahead and alter the program significantly. On this parking placard issue, this is something. I don't remember exactly what the mayor said during the campaign, but he's sort of been in closer to your line of thinking than, you know, than the other side of.
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A
You might remember. We did a study of illegal parking in downtown Brooklyn, where we found, on average, There are about 500 illegally parked cars in downtown Brooklyn every single day. And Melissa Russo was nice enough to ask the candidates about it at a mayoral debate, and Mayor Mamdani responded forcefully. And so, look, it's. It's a big city government. There's a lot of work for them to do. I. But I'm hopeful that, you know, over the course of this term, he will work with me and make this a priority to really rein in illegal parking. It.
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B
No, no. No discussion so far on that, though, right? I mean, early on, no, it's there.
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A
You know, this is.
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B
Yeah, it's amazing, this issue. I mean, I. I was at a Bill de Blasio press conference. I don't even remember what year at this point. It was probably 2016, I want to say where he was, like, taking this issue on.
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A
Yes, I remember. I was there, too.
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B
And nothing. Nothing seems to have changed. I mean, there was supposed to be. It was supposed to be having. Moving to electronic placards at least so that they could easily be scanned. But that's not what. What's going on here. It's just because this has to go through city government, and it's the city government employees who don't want to do it. So it doesn't go anywhere.
- [33:42]
A
Basically, yes. I think that is the crux of it. But, you know, you may remember Andrew Yang did a press conference and. Yes, Andrew Yang, I know, but he did a press conference highlighting placard abuse, illegal parking at Borough hall. Tried to make this an issue in the 2021 mayoral campaign. And Eric Adams response was basically, there are serious issues in the city, and this ain't one the of them. And that was his approach over the last four years. It was an administration that just could not care less about this issue. And this is an important safety issue across my district. I have illegally parked cars on sidewalks, in crosswalks, in bike lanes. It makes it impossible for people with strollers and wheelchairs for all of us to just safely get around our streets. It's also petty corruption. You know, some people are using actual placards that are issued by a city agency, but many more people are using fake placards that they printed themselves or a construction vest that they bought off Amazon and stuck in the dashboard.
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B
Oh, it's everywhere. It's everywhere. In my neighborhood, in, you know, pretty far out in Brooklyn, it's everywhere. It's the vests. It's unbelievable.
- [34:54]
A
And, you know, we've really pushed the NYPD Chief of Transportation and her team Chief Obey, Chief o', Sullivan, to work with us to do more aggressive enforcement in downtown Brooklyn. And they send me data, they're doing more enforcement. And I had Chief Obey out in our community just a couple weeks ago, and I got an update yesterday on their latest enforcement numbers on year to date. I think they're trying, but they don't have the person power to address this issue at scale. We need new systemic approaches. And so there are two bills that. That I've introduced that I think would really solve this. One is to abolish placards. There's just no reason for them. Why I completely. I strongly believe that if a city worker is doing city business in a city vehicle, there should be relaxed parking policies so that a building inspector or an ACS investigator can get where they need to go in a timely fashion if they can't find a legal parking spot to keep people safe. But why do we allow that same city worker to put a real or fake placard in their dashboard and then park their car wherever they want illegally? It doesn't make any sense. It's just. It's an absurd policy and it should be revoked. You know, what our legislation does is that any placard that is not. Had not been negotiated via collective bargaining would just be revoked across the board. It would take the vast majority of placards out of distribution overnight. And I really want to see this bill move forward. I think it'll make a huge difference. The second bill is citizen enforcement, so that if somebody's parked illegally, you can take a photo of the license plate, take a photo of where they're parked, send it in to the Department of Transportation, and a fine would be issued. We've looked at different iterations of this bill where maybe even the person sending in the photo could get a portion of the revenue generated. We could incentivize it if it's needed, but ultimately, I don't even think that part matters. It's just about having eyes and ears across the street and real accountability. And I think we also need more camera based enforcement, which almost entirely requires the support of Albany. We've been really focused on putting cameras on street sweepers so that cars that don't move for alternate side parking would be ticketed in a consistent way and where people would face a, you know, recurring regular fine if they don't move their car for asp so that we can keep our streets clean, you know, get rats out of our neighborhood and, you know, have better places to live. These are all ways that we can address illegal parking and improve our collective quality of life.
- [37:28]
B
All right, you have legislation to create the Department of Community Safety that Mayor Mamdani had as a key plank of his campaign platform. You introduced the first version of it in December, you reintroduced it in January. It's got what, 27, 28 sponsors in the 51 seat city council. One of those includes the public advocate. He can't vote, but say a little bit about this legislation. When's it going to have a. Is it going to have a hearing? Was this introduced in collaboration with the mayor? Give us a little background on this because it's been interesting. The mayor said he was grateful that you introduced legislation, but he seems to be considering other ways to create the department. Say a little bit about the bill and where it's at and what the path is forward.
- [38:19]
A
When I ran for city council in 2021, I put forward an idea along these lines to create a new agency to address that could respond in real time to address a range of safety and quality of life and mental health issues. And I'd been working on this bill. You know, we worked with bill drafters and they, you know, kind of said, what's the point? Eric Adams will never do this in a million years. And so it was on the back burner. But as Mayor Mamdani's campaign took off. We came back toward crafting this bill and moving it forward. Basically, you know, from my vantage point, there's three core things that I'm hoping we can accomplish with this agency. One is to address nonviolent issues in real time, have city workers that can effectively de escalate situations, connect people to the services and solutions and housing that they need, and prevent that revolving door that we're all too familiar with of people cycling through our shelters and our jails and our hospitals, but nobody actually providing lasting or meaningful help. Secondly, we need to do a much better job of proactively providing interventions and assistance to people who are struggling, especially with mental health issues, before we hit those crisis moments. And thirdly, I think we need to provide more oversight and rigor and support for the violence intervention work. The growing cure violence system or the crisis management system that has made a tremendous difference in improving safety in some of the neighborhoods in our city that have the highest rates of violence. You know, we've received a commitment from Speaker Menon that she's going to have a hearing on the bill. You know, she likes to say that she likes hearings. Hearings are good ways to have conversations about the bill to get feedback. And I really hope that we'll be able to have that hearing as soon as possible, you know, and look forward to getting a date scheduled on the books. The mayor has the opportunity to start building out the agency through an executive order. He could create a mayor's Office of Community Safety where he could begin hiring people, where he could begin, you know, moving some of the existing programs in city government under the purview of this new office. But if we want this to be permanent, we need legislation. We saw at the beginning of the Mamdani administration, he rescinded a number of executive orders from Mayor Adams tenure. And the next mayor could rescind his executive order to create the Office of Community Safety. If we want to have a permanent part of the fabric of city government that is able to bring together all of the disparate initiatives that currently exist under one roof, legislation is the best and cleanest way to do it. So I'm hopeful that, you know, the mayor. I'm fully supportive of the mayor's efforts to start and begin this effort. He should issue his executive order, he should start the planning process. You know, there's been reporting that he was going to bring in a deputy mayor to oversee this, to indicate just how significant a priority and serious a priority this is for him and his team. But ultimately we need the Council to act. And I hope that Speaker Menon and my colleagues will work together with. With the mayor and his team to pass this legislation.
- [41:42]
B
So this bill was not introduced in coordination with Mamdani. This was a previous idea you've been working on, and you took into account some of the discussion around what he was running on. Is that a fair way to say it? Or were you. Were you sort of working in concert some with the transition?
- [42:01]
A
We have been in active communication with the transition and now with the mayor's team on this topic, but our work on it predated the mayor's campaign. You know, I. The goal here is to. Is for this to be helpful, authorizing legislation for him. And so, of course, we're talking to them and seeking their input and feedback. And, you know, I always love an excuse to call Dean foul.
- [42:25]
B
Okay, so. So the. The idea here is you have a framework and a piece of legislation. They might do an executive order to get this moving as a mayor's office. And then if. If or when the council passes it, to adjust the city charter to create this new department as a standalone department, everything can sort of merge together in due time.
- [42:48]
A
That's exactly right. Just as, you know, you used to have the mayor's Office of Veteran Services, you know, Eric Ulrich and the council, and working with Mayor de Blasio, we passed legislation to create the Department of Veteran Services to make it a permanent part of city government. And I. I think that's the comparison here.
- [43:04]
B
Are there any pieces of this vision that, you know, you differ on than the mayor? Like, you know, he had a. This is one area where he actually had a pretty extensive campaign plan. Now, we know those are sort of often made to just kind of go in the dustbin once someone becomes mayor and you start over on some of these plans, but they can be guiding documents as well from the campaign. And he had a pretty extensive. It's still still available online for the Department of Community Safety, pretty extensive plan, estimating a $1.1 billion annual budget, more than half of that from existing funds that, you know, are programs that would move into this new department from elsewhere. Like some of the things you mentioned, you know, community mental health, gun violence prevention and so forth. Anything you have a different vision on about what would or would not sort of be part of this new office or how it would operate.
- [43:53]
A
I'm not aware of any major areas of disagreement at this time. I'm sure there. This is such a complex terrain. I'm sure there will be.
- [44:03]
B
We'll have to wait for the hearing.
- [44:04]
A
Yeah, we'll have to wait for the hearing to get through it. But, you know, we. I've talked to a number of different people in the Mamdani administration about this, and I think, you know, I'm, I'm excited about it. I think there's so much for us to build on. Many, you know, folks may be familiar with Be Heard, which was an initiative that was started in the de Blasio administration, expanded modestly by Mayor Adams, where, you know, call goes into 911 and an EMT and a social worker are deployed to address the mental health call. You know, it's. There were. It's only a relatively small fraction of the total mental health calls that are sent to be the Be Heard teams. And Be Heard is only picking up about 25% of the calls that they could be picking up. So there's so much opportunity for growth there. You know, we could have, you know, if, if the mayor was to, you know, identify the resources to expand Be Heard to every precinct in New York City, you know, this next fiscal year and expand the types of mental health calls that Be Heard professionals could be deployed at, that would be a game changer overnight. And that's just the starting foundation for what this can be. You know, I, I have to say I've been appreciative of the response that I've heard from many members of the NYPD who don't want to be dealing with quality of life issues, homelessness issues, other challenges around their precincts. They want to be doing their core work of preventing and solving violent crime. And unfortunately, what we've seen in the last number of years is our response times on the most serious crimes. You know, when a shooting occurs, when a violent incident is happening, has gone way up, you know, forever. That response time was five minutes. It's. It was. Under Eric Adams, it increased by approximately 40%. It's been well over seven minutes. And it keeps getting worse. This is what we need the NYPD to be focused on. If we can take some of the quality of life issues off of their plate so that they can fully focus their time, energy and resources on swiftly responding to crises as they occur. Where people represent a threat, debt to other New Yorkers, that is, it will also make us dramatically safer. And one of the.
- [46:24]
B
On one of the key crux issues of this design and the questions about it is you have a 911 call that comes in. We've seen a number of these instances that end in the police shooting and killing somebody who escalates becomes at times violent. Of course, questions about whether the situation could have been de escalated, whether lethal force was necessary. There's so many complications in these situations. But in the vision Here, when a 911 call comes in and there's a mental health emergency and the person who's in crisis is not particularly being violent at that moment or is not showing signs of violence, does a. Is the coordination with the police department happening or that is not happening in response to these calls unless something turns violent, is there police backup in the vision for this or it's totally removed from the police unless there's a call that then comes in to the police to respond.
- [47:33]
A
There is a lot for us to work through here, but I want to be clear that if somebody represents a potential threat to others, the police have to be meaningfully, centrally involved in the response. That is, I believe that strongly if there are situ. There are, you know, I mean, part
- [48:02]
B
of the thing seems to hinge on your word potentially, right? Because the definition of potentially there feels like it could be expansive. Right. And that's part of the pushback on some of these ideas.
- [48:12]
A
The call, the, the calls into 911 dispatchers are, you know, are always challenging. You're trying to get as much specific information as you can to ascertain who's the best folks to deploy in a given situation, whether that's EMTs, fire, police, et cetera. And we will be adding another kind of layer of complexity to this with the Department of Community Safety, but we'll work together to create the right decision tree of questions that those 911 dispatchers are asking to make sure that the right professionals are deployed in a given situation. And oftentimes when EMTs are deployed to a scene because there's a person who's deeply inebriated and struggling, the police are also sin. They're not the lead agency that is responding, but they're there to provide backup and support. And so we will work through this. I think these are complicated issues for sure, but they are navigable issues. The Mamdani administration, you know, has made clear they're going to bring on new leadership that's going to guide this. And I hope that that leadership has operational expertise, you know, doing, you know, with first responder work and understands, you know, this landscape so that we can develop a system that works well, it's and delivers better outcomes for more New Yorkers.
- [49:43]
B
I gotta let you go in a couple minutes here. Just lastly on the Department of Community Safety, so sketch it out for people sort of, of generally what you expect here, you expect a hearing on your bill in the coming months. The mayor actually said he's going to put some initial funding in his executive budget, which is due May 1, to start moving in the direction of this department, which again, as we're talking about here, could be a start as a mayor's office of. And then move into a full fledged department once your legislation is. Is passed, if it gets passed. But just anything else to sort of sketch out, you know, maybe there's a naming of a new deputy mayor that you were referencing. How do you sort of to see this coming?
- [50:21]
A
These are my best guesses at this point. Maybe I'm being a little hopeful and trying to wish some of this into existence, but I would say I'm really hopeful that we'll have a hearing by the end of June. So before we are, you know, we do less hearings in the summer, it would be great to have this hearing earlier in the year to get that moving. I'd expect that the mayor will look to appoint somebody on a similar timeframe over the next few months to be spearheading this effort so that we can start to work together to advance so they can start working toward implementation and working collaboratively with us on the legislation. And when the political will is there to move the bill forward, hopefully as soon as possible, we'll get this signed into law so that New Yorkers will know that this is going to be a permanent part of the safety landscape in New York City and how we deliver the best care to New Yorkers who are in need.
- [51:15]
B
All right, we can keep going on that, and I have many more questions on it, but I'll wait till there's going to be a hearing or until there has been a hearing. You have interesting stuff in the initial legislation around, you know, an office in each borough that operates 24 7. You know, you have a lot of interesting things in the outline of this department in your bill. And obviously that could all change in negotiations and feedback from the administration. You know, there's questions about how much in the long run this would potentially reduce other departments, including the nypd, but not limited to the nypd, you know, responsibility, but then also potentially, you know, removing funding from those different departments and personnel and moving into this new department or so forth. So a lot of interesting things to discuss there. Okay, before I let you go, we're going to have to do a different. We're going to have to do like a part two on your contracts work, because there's no reason to get into that we only have a couple more minutes here, but you're. You're chairing the Contracts Committee, and you're already off and running on that with Oversight, and there's a lot to. A lot to dig into there. Just in our last couple of minutes here, I got to ask you about, you know, some of the stuff on the politics side. You are a very seasoned political operative as well as a government official. So just give me your. Your one minute on each of the two congressional races in Brooklyn that you're focused on, involved in. There's the 7th congressional district to replace Nydia Velasquez, where you're supporting Antonio Reynoso. There's the 10th Congressional District, which is Brad Lander's challenge to Dan Goldman, and you're supporting Brad Lander. Give me sort of the, you know, political strategists in you one minute overview on each of those races. And obviously, you're biased because you've been endorsing, but, you know, how do you sort of see each of those races and what they'll hinge on?
- [53:08]
A
These are both highly competitive congressional primaries, and I am thrilled that my longtime friend Antonio Reynoso is running to succeed Nydia Velasquez. Nydia's been a mentor to both of us. She is a rare elected official who has cultivated and recruited a bench of city and state elected officials who share her progressive values to serve the community that she represents. When Antonio and I were involved in founding New Kings Democrats, a reform political club in Brooklyn, taking on the Corrupt county machine 17, 18 years ago, Nydia brought us under her wing immediately. And at the time, she had, like, no allies across her district. It was. She was on an island. And today there's eight or 10 people who she's helped elect. She took on incumbents. She's challenged the status quo. She works harder than any elected official I know. She is impeccably bright and profoundly decent and ethical. She really is the model elected official, and I'm so lucky to call her a role model
- [54:27]
B
Representative Velasquez. But what's, what's the, what's the race going to come down to? Here? You got DSA on one side and the mayor against you guys on the other with. With the outgoing congress member who's got her own, you know, significant sway, you know, in the district.
- [54:41]
A
And look, Antonio is the right person to continue Nydia's legacy. He's been, you know, you have two strong progressive candidates here who are going to vote the right way in Washington, who are going to fight Donald Trump with all they got. But in Antonio, you have somebody who has a proven record of results, who has stood up to the NYPD and passed consequential legislation like the Right to Know act, who has passed transformational environmental justice legislation to better distribute how the garbage, you know, to what neighborhoods garbage is sent to across the city of New York, who has. Who sponsored the original outdoor dining bill. I mean, Antonio has been a wildly effective legislator. But what really makes a difference for me as a council member who represents such a large swath of this district is that Antonio, on Day one, knows the district. He knows the communities across the seventh Congressional District. He is deeply rooted in this community. The son of a home health aide who relied on every government program that exists when he was growing up. He has spent his whole life giving back to the community that raised him. And 46% of the vote thereabouts is in my district and Council Member Gutierrez's district, which Antonio, of course, used to represent. So the North Brooklyn Corps is what's going to decide this race. And I believe that. That my neighbors know Antonio. They know the work that he's done in our community. And with the impressive constellation of not just Congresswoman Velasquez, but Tish James and the Working Families Party and council member after councilmember and assemblymember, et cetera, who represents this district? Everybody. This is basically, you know, all of the progressive leaders on one side and DSA on the other, and every labor union, except for one that has gotten involved in this race has endorsed Antonio Reynoso. And many more are coming. We are going to have to work our absolute butts off to win. I've been out there campaigning multiple times already. I will be out there campaigning as much as I possibly can. And I know that my colleagues like Jen Gutierrez and Sandy Nurse are just as committed as I am to working, to making sure that our constituents know how important this election is and how critical it is to support Antonio.
- [57:03]
B
And who's the favorite in Lander? Goldman. It seems like Representative Goldman thinks he's the underdog. He just put out a chat challenge for seven televised debates to Brad Lander. So that's usually something you do when you think you might be the underdog in a race. You want more opportunities to have your opponent make a mistake and to show the, you know, show the discrepancy between the two. Just a quick moment on your handicap on that race. What do you think is going to happen there?
- [57:29]
A
Congressman Goldman's a experienced prosecutor who I think feels comfortable in that setting. And I'm sure that's why he is advocating for it. You know, there was a Data for Progress poll, I don't know, four or five months ago that gave Brad a big advantage in the race. You know, this is a majority Brooklyn district. This is a district that knows Brad Lambert. You know, his entire council seat is in the dish, is in this congressional. These are the areas where he did best in his mayoral run, where support for him is strongest. And I think across the. The neighborhoods of brownstone Brooklyn that myself and Shahana and council member Aviles, that Alexa represent, you know, Brad's going to do very well. And the fact that just about every local elected official across this district is endorsing Brad Lander against a sitting member of Congress says a lot on the
- [58:25]
B
Brooklyn side, at least not just on the Brooklyn side.
- [58:28]
A
On the Manhattan side, too, you've got a number of elected officials that are endorsing him, that have already or that will be endorsing him. So he's got an impressive coalition that he has built. And it's because of who Brad is. Brad just is a very good legislator. And I've been, you know, I've looked up to Brad for a long time. I know he'll be a partner for me. You know, I want to make sure that as a council member, I can tell my constituents a congressmember is working hand in glove with us, that we're, you know, aligned and pushing and that I'm taking care of things at City hall and he's helping me in Washington.
- [59:00]
B
Is there a difference, though, between the two on anything other than some of. Especially the response to Israel's war in Gaza? Is there something you point to? If you're talking to people and you're supporting Brad and you're out there, you know, knocking doors for him or something like that. Like what? What is actually the difference between the two that you'd point to?
- [59:22]
A
I think it's more than Israel, Gaza. I trust Brad's values. I trust that Brad's values are aligned not just with my own, but with my districts. And I can count on those values. I don't need to be monitoring to make sure he's voting the right way. I know that he's voting the right way. I know that he's championing the causes that matter to me and to my constituents. And look, I want a congressman who's a good partner for my district and for my office. It really matters when the council member and the assembly member and the senator and the congressmember are all fighting for the same thing that are all pushing for the same issue and rowing in the same direction. It forces mayors and governors, even federal agencies to hear us. And Brad will be a much, much more reliable and effective partner for our community.
- [60:09]
B
Let me let you go on this to come back to the Reynoso pursuit of the seventh Congressional District. So that primary is in June, like The New York 10 and many others for state and federal office this year. If Antonio Reynoso wins the June primary, 99, you know, 0.9%, he's the next congressmember come January. But immediately upon him potentially winning that primary, there would be lots of more public jockeying to run in a special election for Brooklyn Borough president in early 2027. Would that be something you would be potentially jumping into?
- [60:45]
A
I imagine that every member of the Brooklyn delegation in the City Council will be looking at that opportunity if it presents itself. I love Brooklyn, but my singular focus right now is making sure that Antonio wins. And you know, Antonio officiated my wedding like I attended his baby showers and his wedding. We are dear close friends and I believe in him wholeheartedly and enthusiastically. And I really, I know that our communities will be exceptionally well served if, if he is our congressman.
- [61:20]
B
Don't forget all the state legislators. That would also take a look at that. At that.
- [61:24]
A
And former elected officials too. How many people ran in that germani special election? There was 17 of them or something. I don't.
- [61:33]
B
Yeah, a special election for Brooklyn borough President early 27 would be quite a scene. But like you're getting at, we are a ways away from that. Just wanted to take your temperature on it. All right. Lincoln wrestler. Appreciate all the time. Glad to go in depth on a couple things here. We'll have to talk other things down the road, especially this contracts work because as much as that can quickly make people have their eyes glaze over for a second, there's hugely important things in the contract oversight work. There's the borough based jail contracts that we need to talk about. There's a lot of contract stuff to discuss, so we'll do that next time. And I also want to check in with you, be publicly forewarned here. I want to check in with you now on how you feel about those charter amendments that were passed around land use and housing. And see, I want to be clear,
- [62:21]
A
I supported two out of three of them. Right. So I, and I think that those, I'm pleased that those have moved forward. And as it relates to the appeals board, I think we're gonna have to wait and see.
- [62:29]
B
Okay, appreciate that. We got one big example of the, of the weight of the appeals board already getting council member Palladino to vote
- [62:38]
A
in favor of to be clear, I don't think that was the appeals board. I think that's the fact that Councilmember Paladino is, well, it is the, I mean, it was the appeals board now, but more broadly, she's one of those 12 districts that she's going to lose power to make decisions on land use because there's no development that's been happening in her community. And I think that I supported that proposal. I thought that was the right thing, that in the areas where we're not building, we need to, we need to change things up. All right.
- [63:04]
B
Good morning. Discussed next time, Lincoln Ressler, city council member from Brooklyn. Really appreciate the time and thoughts and we'll be in touch. Touch.
- [63:09]
A
And thank you so much.
- [63:35]
B
It.